In the DC Animated movie, Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam, BA has this cool ability to fire blasts of lightning from his hands. How should this power be handled by the game rules? Should I give BA a new power with this ability? Can this be done without increasing his PL?

You can buy him the power if you want him to have it. Or you can power stunt one from his strength damage: ranged damage 19, distracting, 19 pts. That power stunt would use extra effort. If you plan on him using the lightning blast a lot I would buy it: lightning blast: ranged damage 19, 38 pts. You might need to buy him some ranged skill bonus to help his attack value too.

Depending on how frequently he does it, it could be either a visual effect of him Power Attacking, Improved Critical (though you'd have to describe the attack retroactively), or a Power Stunt of his Strength Damage that trades in damage for lower accuracy. The latter has the advantage of allowing for a Lightning Descriptor, so it is properly affected by whatever lightning-related Complications or Immunities the target has.

Doresh wrote:Depending on how frequently he does it, it could be either a visual effect of him Power Attacking, Improved Critical (though you'd have to describe the attack retroactively), or a Power Stunt of his Strength Damage that trades in damage for lower accuracy. The latter has the advantage of allowing for a Lightning Descriptor, so it is properly affected by whatever lightning-related Complications or Immunities the target has.

Could you give an example of such a power stunt? I thought Stunts did not allow you to raise damage, only add in extra conditions?

Also, what about buying a new power to do this, if I am going to be doing it a lot? What would you recommend?

andhaira wrote:Another thing, Captain Marvel can sometimes summon lightning on his fists, to amp up his melee attacks. How should that be handled?

It's important to understand that what you see happening can often be interpreted many different ways in the game. As Doresh said, you see Black Adam putting electricity around his hands and think that he's adding damage but in the game this could just be a visual descriptor of him using a power attack.

The one thing people often forget about this game is that the mechanics and how the outcome is described are two different things. Batman does a feint on Killer Croc. The player describes it as Batman jumping over Croc and kicking him in the back of the knee to throw him off balance. Sandman does a feint on Spiderman. The player describes it as Sandman shooting sand into Spidey's eyes. Captain America does a feint on Batroc. The player describes it as Cap throwing his shield and bouncing off of 4 walls so that it ends up under Batroc's feet making him slip. They're all just the feint maneuver but how it's described makes it seem different.

The same is true for power attack. Captain America might do a power attack and the player describes it as Cap hitting someone with the sharper edge of his shield. Captain Marvel might do a power attack and the player describes it as his hands glowing with electricity. Batman might do a power attack and the player describes it as Bats attacking the vital organs rather then the more meaty parts of the body.

The above is true for every maneuver, pretty much every power and effect in the game. The description defines the visual effect.

Or it might be a power stunt to a different power. Captain Marvel's 19 damage is considered concussive force. Because he's magic Marvel power stunts his strength to electricity for a round. His goal is to try and find a weaker save value to attack or to try and trigger a complication: maybe the water elementals they are fighting take more damage from electricity.

So you have to decide if what you're seeing in the comics is a unique power being used or if it is just the writer showing you the visual descriptor of something else being used.

I am well aware of roleplaying powers for different visual effects. And as I mentioned before, I clearly want a different mechanical effect. And not only a different power base (electricity/magic rather than str) but an effect that increases damage and also does electrical + str based damage.

I will likely make it a power for the captain. He lacks a Power of Zeus power field in his official stats so I will make it a part of that. Possibly an array within that, or maybe I will make the Power of Zeus into an array. Not sure, would love some help with it from the good folk here.

But as I quoted someone above, I would like an example where a power stunt is used to mimic this effect. Sure the damage won't change from the base power set it is being stunted from (likely strength), but it could be used to add other effects (like stunning). I would like to see it done by someone more experienced though, to give me some ideas.

andhaira wrote:Could you give an example of such a power stunt? I thought Stunts did not allow you to raise damage, only add in extra conditions?

Power Stunts allow you to create a temporary Alternate Effect, aka a power whose cost can't surpass the cost of the original power.

Raising the damage is allowed as long as you balance it out by reducing Accuracy somehow. The flat modifier "Inaccurate" does that for you. Though it reduces accuracy by -2 for a flat reduction of 1 point, so you might want to use other flat modifiers to even everything out.

Here are two examples how you could modify Captain Marvel's damage effect. Both increase damage by 2 ranks, reduce accuracy by 2 ranks, and have another flaw added in to balance the point cost out.

1. rank +2, add Inaccurate -1 and Activation -1

This one requires a Move Action to charge up, effectively making the attack a Full-Round Action.

2. rank +2, add Inaccurate -1 and Tiring -1

This one requires either an additional Hero Point, or makes Captain Marvel more tired after its use. It's more of a finishing move that way.

Of course, things are a bit more complicated if the effect you're trying to create an Alternate Effect out of something more complicated than a naked Damage effect (aka anything that is not just 1 point per rank)

Also, what about buying a new power to do this, if I am going to be doing it a lot? What would you recommend?

Well, you can always buy a new, permanent Alternate Effect for his Strength Damage with a single point